The human comedy, Warhol-style
Not to be missed is the major exhibition held at the National Galleries of the Grand Palais, devoted to the pop art icon where 130 of his creations are displayed. Just another exhibition on portraits, screen tests and ultra-well-known self-portraits of the "Pope of Pop Art"? Not so sure about that...
Andy Warhol’s Wide World
A prolific artist, skilled at staging everyday life, Warhol knew how to give people a special aura. It is from the discovery of this exhibition organized around themes, reflecting different key moments of his creations, that we will gain an understanding of the extent his portraits have marked the world of art. The stars of the 1960s and the 1970s, even the eighties, had to have their portraits executed by Andy, just like the Borgias had to be painted by Leonardo de Vinci : no matter what era, the work created by a "master" is often also innovative technically-speaking. This is especially true of Warohl, who designed the photography/painting technique : the picture of the subject is taken with a Polaroid camera, then a serigraphy is obtained and applied on a canvass that has been pre-painted with acrylic. Fascinating results... Revolutionary, innovative, trendy, each individual will use their own descriptions after immersion into Warhol’s "wide world".
The tiny world of stars, the great world of art
Commissioned portraits screen tests, but also a series on Mao as well as dollars: Warhol fascinates and reinvents and puts portrait genre back into the limelight while introducing new codes. In this mirror, narcissists look at themselves in admiration, or perhaps even question themselves ? From Brigitte Bardot to Mick Jagger, from Man Ray toYves Saint Laurent, passing by Giorgio Armani and the Princess of Monaco, all felt that they had become a work of art: what flattery for their egos, and also what pleasure for onlookers ! Because for Warhol, we all have our hour of glory and we are all involved in the portraits of society, as a whole. "All of my portraits have to be the same size, so that they can fit together and make one big painting called portraits of society". Ambitious like a new human comedy, intelligent and simulating. Andy: yes, we’re all for that...
